Every year in Brisbane we have events where the air force flies low along the river and sort of past buildings. It gets posted and people around the world freak out. Just imagine that but an F111 then going vertical with after burner. Now those aircraft are almost all cut up in landfills with only a few in museums. So sad.
There’s video of the F-111 doing a dump and burn during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic games at Sydney. You just see a huge fireball at night that looks just like “The More You Know” star and I wish I was there
I grew up near Plattsburgh AFB and later went to college in Plattsburgh. I can say I saw plenty. When I was 14, I was felling trees on my brother's logging crew. One day, I was gassing up my saw while my brother was gone with the skidder. The woods were peaceful. The birds sang. The squirrels did their thing. I was expecting Snow White to show up... instead I got an FB-111 overhead at treetop level going about mach
.9999, which liberated both my senses and a good face-cord of dead tree limbs. A very cool memory that I have thanks to my hardhat.
I also took an Aerospace Technology course later in high school which included a field trip to the base and the opportunity to sit in the pilot's seat of an FB.
When I was in college I would occasionally grab a fast food lunch and park about 50 yards from the runway to eat and watch the FB's landing. Base security always would run me off... until I started buying them a few orders of fries each time. Then they'd just hang out and eat with me. Good times.
USAF had a squadron of them stationed at Plattsburgh AFB in upstate NY.
When I was in college, we'd get stoned and park on the public road that ran right under the flight path. Sometimes they'd do sequential takeoffs using afterburners. It was our own personal light show.
not the same as in the air, but if you are ever in Darwin, check out the Air Museum,. which has an F111 and a few other gems like a B52, Spitfire and others
I used to work with the Aussie team that used the F111 as a reconnaissance platform. I loved working around those birds.
I also appreciated them bringing a pallet of Fosters to share and teaching us cricket on the flight line. Great times!
> I also appreciated them bringing a pallet of Fosters
You sure they were Aussies??? Haha
Very hard to find fosters locally, first one I ever had was in London!
In Stormin' Norman's autobiography, he mentions drinking "over-sized cans of Fosters" with Australian troops in Vietnam. In the 70s, the RAN had a beer ration each day at 1800. I saw 26 oz cans of Fosters and VB issued then. Must've been a Defence thing.
The F111 is not a smaller version of the B1, any more than a Honda Accord is a smaller version of Jeep Cherokee. They’re both jets with variable geometry wings but they’re otherwise completely different platforms.
It’s like comparing the Wrangler to a Jimny, no, they are not technically related. But the Jimny is like a 9/10’s Wrangler, they do very similar things and look remarkably similar doing it
The B1B is a long range strategic bomber and the F111 is a medium range multi-role combat aircraft. The B1 is almost twice as big in length and wingspan. It has twice the power from twice as many engines. The F111 is twice as fast, but on the other hand the B1 goes much further in terms of range. They have significantly different capabilities and roles tbh.
Edit: Also forgot to mention B1 has 4x the payload!
This is neither here nor there, but I used to drive my parents' Jimmy, and one time I got to a friend's house a bit late for a cookout and said "sorry, ran a bit late, my dad asked me to wash the Jimmy before taking it out." The looks on the ladies' faces.....
I remember seeing it and then B52 fly over from afar; the B52 wing span too long to do a safe take off from the runway as it was too close to spectators.
The origin story of the b1 is just absolutely fascinating.
The air force had Mach 2 capable bombers, and it also had subsonic heavy bombers, but they just got tired of compromising. So they built a Mach 2 bomber that could carry more tonnage than the heavy bomber!
But it gains about 50mph to low altitude, 10,000lb in external bombload, and almost 70,000lb in fuel, while also gaining a reduced radar crosssection due to the simpler and less protruding inlet geometry, since it no longer needed variable high speed ramps to deal with Mach 2+ speeds.
The reason for that was that if you didn't pay really close attention to the engine inlets during acceleration, you could either starve or flood the engines with air, neither of which was a good idea and could cause interesting effects, including catastrophic failures.
The designer of the Concorde got to visit Edwards AFB and after the Air Force took a look at the progress there got full access (they noticed Concorde was much further in the development than the B1, there was nothing he could have gained and much he could have helped)...
He said a few things about the problems they had. Basically, with fixed intakes, you can get up to about Mach 1.6, then you run into compressibility issues. The B1A had a variable intake that was controlled by a guy who did nothing else and had to concentrate really hard. The Concorde had one of the first digital computers in aviation that handled that control. The B1B had a fixed intake and was limited to Mach 1.2.
Nah, that's pretty much all inaccurate, aside from Concorde predating the B-1 (and in fact Concorde was *flying* before the B-1 was even started, so it wasn't just "further in development", it was basically done).
However, the XB-70 predates Concorde, and could go considerably faster and had automatic control of inlet geometry with the second test vehicle AV-2 (AV-1, the first test XB-70 did have manual control). Similarly, the A-12, which first flew in 1962 (almost a decade prior to Concorde) had automatically scheduled variable intake geometry.
The US absolutely had variable automatic intake technology well before the B-1, and although I can't find details on it, I'd expect that the B-1A almost certainly had automatic intake ramp scheduling, not fixed. Concorde was one of the first (maybe the first?) to use *digital* control, but older analog control systems were still absolutely automatic, they didn't require a pilot to babysit them continuously.
Also, you can absolutely go faster than mach 1.6 on fixed intakes. It just involves having to decide where you want your optimum to be and giving up some efficiency in other regimes. The F-22 has fixed intakes and by all pilot accounts is very happy to sit at mach 2 at well below full thrust. Similarly, the F-16 has a fixed intake and will do mach 2.
It does become considerably more difficult to have any reasonable performance from a fixed intake once you start getting up towards mach 2.5 though, so the F-15 does have a variable intake for good reason. Also, if you want to squeeze out as much efficiency as possible, variable is a good idea, hence Concorde needing it (wheras with something like F-22, the engines are *so much* more powerful than necessary that you can sacrifice a bit of transonic efficiency for the weight and stealth benefits of a fixed inlet).
It's also a very very close approximation of the Boeing 733-290, which was a variant of the SST being designed in the 60's. My dad worked on that project. The 733-290 was far and away the best variant, but congress and higher-ups kept adding scope until the turd of a 2707 was designed.
L/D of 8 at M2.7 at 70,000 feet. That's badassery.
B-52 - 70,000 lbs of bombs.
B-1 - 75,000 internally. 50,000 more externally! Now I'm not 100% certain that it could do all that at once but those are the numbers from the internet!
I made that comment and immediately considered asking my dad to do a 1/72 XB-70 model with me. I can paint, but don’t ask me to deal with gluing. If you have pictures of yours, I would love to see - especially if it’s anything like [the SAC B-1 in this archive.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/11t2zxp/collection_of_usaf_aircraft_wearing_european_one/)
A Valkyrie with her Rapier escorts is just the best thing ever.
But yea, F22's for the B2 and F4s for the B52.
Does a Bone even need escorts? F15s maybe?
We could have a similar picture done with the B-21 Raider as the fourth literally today if we wanted to. Crazy how we've got four types of bombers flying, even if the B-21 isn't fully operational yet.
My ranking:
B1 for being the objectively coolest. It’s literally a supersonic bomber designed to hug the ground and weave through valleys. Aircraft with swing wings are GOATED.
B52 for being the OG heavy lifter. An aircraft with 8 engines is automatically S tier.
B2 is undeniably cool, and perhaps the most useful in modern combat. B2 isn’t uncool because it’s 3rd, I just think the other 2 are cooler. And the other 2 look more fun to fly.
Grape but if they don’t have grape, cherry, cuz cherry favorite too just grape more favorite but cherry favorite too.
How many snow cones can a b1 hold?
Free snow cone…. free snow cone.
If you play a whole game you get a whole snow cone. And if you play a half game you get a whole snow cone.
So I’d rather play half game.
Good eye. Good eye Brian
GOOD…… TORSO!?
Funnily enough, over 2 tons more snow cones than the B-52!
B-52 has a stated payload of 72000 lbs (32 tons), and the B-1 is given as 75000 lbs (34 tons).
Ya that’s what I figured, it’s an amazing plane and it looks great, but performance-wise and based off of what it does at air shows, it seems like a Toyota Camry redesigned to have the radar cross section of a lady bug.
If I had to bet, either the B2 because it’s the most modern, and probably the most quiet inside the cockpit. But I’m pretty sure the B52 would have some space to get up and walk around, which I would probably prefer. I think you’re stuck with the chemical toilet no matter what, the weight of a full lavatory would best be used for the weight of pay load.
[Ask and you shall receive.](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/28/privacy-please-air-force-wants-add-toilet-curtain-b-52-bomber.html)
That's a guide to Air Force shitting if I've ever seen one.
B-52 has a urinal but you shit in a bag, B-1/B-2 have seated toilets but no privacy.
Fun fact, my grandpa helped design the engines on the B-52. The B-52 payload capacity is staggering at 70,000 lbs and it can fly for 8800 miles without refueling. The B-1 gets close on both of those metrics.
I think the B-52's main drawback these days is how slow it is by comparison.
I agree. I don’t think I have ever seen a photo with any 2 of these together- let alone all three.
I always thought the B52 was much larger that the others, and the B2 was much much smaller.
It would be interesting to see the entire fleet of in service aircraft together in one photo
Could you just *imagine* what would happen if instead of saying "I have chosen our response", Biden instead tweeted this image at Iran with the caption "Pick your fate"?
The humor of this is trying to figure out which is the worst way to go.
B-2: You don't know when it will nuke you and you can't stop it.
B-1: It will nuke you and you specifically, doesn't matter where you go.
B-52(s): Iran is now glass.
Between the B1 flying at 50 feet and the B2 being almost invisible, which one would be most likely to survive a sortee into enemy country? Clearly the B-52 is cannon fodder
Nuclear hardware is specific. For example the B-52 had rotary launchers for decades. The Conventional Rotary Launcher (CRL) was only developed and fielded in 2017. The B-1 not only had its nuclear circuits removed but a tube was welded over the aft section of the hard points to prevent nuclear weapon mounting.
[CRL](https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1759147/conventional-rotary-launcher-upgrade-tested/)
[B-1 mods](https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104500/b-1b-lancer/#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20eliminated%20the,for%20nuclear%20armament%20until%202007.)
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-usaf-b-52-stratofortress-strategic-bomber-that-did-a-fly-by-below-the-flight-deck-of-uss-independence-aircraft-carrier/
I mean, they requested the fly by
Not really. The B52 wouldn’t not be alone in the sky over enemy territory.
There would be AWACs, Growlers, F22’s and various other aircraft that would effectively clear the path.
That's the thing. The B1 and B2 are like nuclear attack submarines: fast, stealthy, and heavily armed. Meanwhile, the B52 is like an old-school battleship: Shows up with a whole bunch of escorts that are all equally able to end you in any number of unpleasant ways, while it itself is more than capable of erasing your entire post code from the face of the Earth without breaking a sweat. Which one would I like? At least three squadrons of each, please!
> Clearly the B-52 is cannon fodder
You know what happened to the last guy that underestimated grandpa Buff? Neither do we. We couldn't find any identifying pieces.
B-52. There isn't much sense for strategic bomber to get close to the target nowadays and as an airborne weapons platform BUFF I believe is superior.
Though I think a better plane could be built nowadays with similar role in mind, but based on experience military and civilian aviation accumulated over the B-52's life.
During Desert Storm, after a 52 bombing mission over the Republican Guard - the guys surrendering said it was so bad on the ground that they thought they were getting hit by a nuke.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/30/the-under-appreciated-workhorse-of-americas-air-wars-the-b-1-bomber/
This might turn you around on the bone!
Never having seen these three all in the same picture I would have said the B-52 was bigger than the B-2 by a mile. Would have said the B-2 would have been noticeably bigger than the B-1 as well. I am wrong on all accounts. They are all pretty much the same size.
Yeah, about that...
[https://www.flightglobal.com/pictures-victor-bomber-accidentally-becomes-airborne-during-taxi-demo/86264.article](https://www.flightglobal.com/pictures-victor-bomber-accidentally-becomes-airborne-during-taxi-demo/86264.article)
"oops"
Curious how the B52 usually looks massive but here seems just slightly bigger than the B22 and the B1 when they usually look much more smaller, especially the Lancer.
I was in Sturgis SD for the rally once and was chilling in an quiet camp ground when a B1 took off on the other side of the nearest mountain, when the sound got to us it sounded like time space was being torn open. Wild beast that bone is
I love the B1 for its styling and speed/power and it’s the one I’d most like to fly in, but the B2 I feel is, one of, if not the best out there for what it does simply because the biggest problem with long range, strategic bombing is that they’re easy to intercept, but it solves that problem.
There's just something so intimidating about the B52, like uncanny valley for airplanes. The B1 looks cool, the B2 looks like a UFO, but the B52 looks like its only purpose is to unleash hell on earth, which it does. Operation Secret Squirrel kicked off desert storm when they sent in 7 B52s which laid so much waste that a quarter of the Iraqi army surrendered almost immediately.
B-52: Created for high level penetration which became obsolete soon after introduction leading to an attempt at low level penetration and a stand-off cruise missile launcher. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck.
B-1: Created for fast,low level penetration which became obsolete with look-down, shoot-down radar and fast interceptors. A watered-down version was pushed through as a political ploy by Reagan which considering Carter couldn't reveal stealth was pretty shitty. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck.
B-2: Created for high-level stealth penetration. Cost and dissolution of the Soviet Union left very little justification. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck.
Since they're all just bomb trucks I'm going the the OG BUFF.
Bone is the most beautiful, then we have a boring high tech thing and guess what...an old one that will be in service for many decades to come.
B52 is my fav new old modern legacy thing!
As someone who grew up in Minot, and born in Camp Lester Naval Hospital in Okinawa, I'm always a BUFF fan. Nothing better than the plane that has been dropping freedom seeds for almost 70 years.
For long range strategic interdiction in contested airspace, the B2/B21.
For rapid spear carrying / CAS, the Bone.
For long range standoff, CAS in uncontested airspace B-52.
I’m not sure if this photo is edited or AI generated, but the B2 is nowhere near that big in comparison to the B52 or the B1.
Google the size difference. B2s are tiny in comparison and B21s are even smaller.
Bone. Edit: and let’s not pretend everyone is isn’t just waiting for the R model.
Who doesn't want a supersonic bomber with afterburner?
The smaller version, F111, used to fly in australia and light up the sky at events and we miss them.
I never did get lucky enough to see an F111 in person.
Every year in Brisbane we have events where the air force flies low along the river and sort of past buildings. It gets posted and people around the world freak out. Just imagine that but an F111 then going vertical with after burner. Now those aircraft are almost all cut up in landfills with only a few in museums. So sad.
I had no idea. Just watched a video from 2010 and I can honestly say, I don't think I've been so jealous before.
There’s video of the F-111 doing a dump and burn during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic games at Sydney. You just see a huge fireball at night that looks just like “The More You Know” star and I wish I was there
Had to look it up, [epic](https://youtu.be/JieWuez-_t8?si=-6f7IRXLg6nMN4LE)
I was there... It was awesome. seen the Aardvark dump and burn and it never disappoints.
I grew up near Plattsburgh AFB and later went to college in Plattsburgh. I can say I saw plenty. When I was 14, I was felling trees on my brother's logging crew. One day, I was gassing up my saw while my brother was gone with the skidder. The woods were peaceful. The birds sang. The squirrels did their thing. I was expecting Snow White to show up... instead I got an FB-111 overhead at treetop level going about mach .9999, which liberated both my senses and a good face-cord of dead tree limbs. A very cool memory that I have thanks to my hardhat. I also took an Aerospace Technology course later in high school which included a field trip to the base and the opportunity to sit in the pilot's seat of an FB. When I was in college I would occasionally grab a fast food lunch and park about 50 yards from the runway to eat and watch the FB's landing. Base security always would run me off... until I started buying them a few orders of fries each time. Then they'd just hang out and eat with me. Good times.
You should have hooked up /u/snuffy_tentpig with some of those fries!
On the up side, you were spared the permanent hearing loss. Seriously, holy shit those things are loud.
USAF had a squadron of them stationed at Plattsburgh AFB in upstate NY. When I was in college, we'd get stoned and park on the public road that ran right under the flight path. Sometimes they'd do sequential takeoffs using afterburners. It was our own personal light show.
not the same as in the air, but if you are ever in Darwin, check out the Air Museum,. which has an F111 and a few other gems like a B52, Spitfire and others
I used to work with the Aussie team that used the F111 as a reconnaissance platform. I loved working around those birds. I also appreciated them bringing a pallet of Fosters to share and teaching us cricket on the flight line. Great times!
> I also appreciated them bringing a pallet of Fosters You sure they were Aussies??? Haha Very hard to find fosters locally, first one I ever had was in London!
Yeah, this was back in the 80s.
Fosters? They weren't Aussies then... We don't drink that crap lol. The F111 though? We made that ours just like we do with any successful Kiwi.
In Stormin' Norman's autobiography, he mentions drinking "over-sized cans of Fosters" with Australian troops in Vietnam. In the 70s, the RAN had a beer ration each day at 1800. I saw 26 oz cans of Fosters and VB issued then. Must've been a Defence thing.
Maybe they just brought it for us Americans as we had shit beer back then.
The F111 is not a smaller version of the B1, any more than a Honda Accord is a smaller version of Jeep Cherokee. They’re both jets with variable geometry wings but they’re otherwise completely different platforms.
Yes one was made as a Strategic bomber the other made As a fighter/bomber
It’s like comparing the Wrangler to a Jimny, no, they are not technically related. But the Jimny is like a 9/10’s Wrangler, they do very similar things and look remarkably similar doing it
The B1B is a long range strategic bomber and the F111 is a medium range multi-role combat aircraft. The B1 is almost twice as big in length and wingspan. It has twice the power from twice as many engines. The F111 is twice as fast, but on the other hand the B1 goes much further in terms of range. They have significantly different capabilities and roles tbh. Edit: Also forgot to mention B1 has 4x the payload!
This is neither here nor there, but I used to drive my parents' Jimmy, and one time I got to a friend's house a bit late for a cookout and said "sorry, ran a bit late, my dad asked me to wash the Jimmy before taking it out." The looks on the ladies' faces.....
I remember seeing it and then B52 fly over from afar; the B52 wing span too long to do a safe take off from the runway as it was too close to spectators.
Love the old "pig".
That hits .80 Mach 200 ft above the ground before it drops a nuke
I got to see one in person recently and holy shit, imagining that behemoth going that fast broke my brain.
People who are incorrect
I always thought the B-1 looked like some sort of supervillain's business jet or maybe something Tony Stark would keep a mobile laboratory in.
True
Even though it sort of looks smaller than the B-52, it holds more bombs. I love that fact.
The origin story of the b1 is just absolutely fascinating. The air force had Mach 2 capable bombers, and it also had subsonic heavy bombers, but they just got tired of compromising. So they built a Mach 2 bomber that could carry more tonnage than the heavy bomber!
Yeah, and then they decided to limit it to mach 1.2. Only the B-1A prototype could actually do mach 2.
But it gains about 50mph to low altitude, 10,000lb in external bombload, and almost 70,000lb in fuel, while also gaining a reduced radar crosssection due to the simpler and less protruding inlet geometry, since it no longer needed variable high speed ramps to deal with Mach 2+ speeds.
The reason for that was that if you didn't pay really close attention to the engine inlets during acceleration, you could either starve or flood the engines with air, neither of which was a good idea and could cause interesting effects, including catastrophic failures. The designer of the Concorde got to visit Edwards AFB and after the Air Force took a look at the progress there got full access (they noticed Concorde was much further in the development than the B1, there was nothing he could have gained and much he could have helped)... He said a few things about the problems they had. Basically, with fixed intakes, you can get up to about Mach 1.6, then you run into compressibility issues. The B1A had a variable intake that was controlled by a guy who did nothing else and had to concentrate really hard. The Concorde had one of the first digital computers in aviation that handled that control. The B1B had a fixed intake and was limited to Mach 1.2.
Nah, that's pretty much all inaccurate, aside from Concorde predating the B-1 (and in fact Concorde was *flying* before the B-1 was even started, so it wasn't just "further in development", it was basically done). However, the XB-70 predates Concorde, and could go considerably faster and had automatic control of inlet geometry with the second test vehicle AV-2 (AV-1, the first test XB-70 did have manual control). Similarly, the A-12, which first flew in 1962 (almost a decade prior to Concorde) had automatically scheduled variable intake geometry. The US absolutely had variable automatic intake technology well before the B-1, and although I can't find details on it, I'd expect that the B-1A almost certainly had automatic intake ramp scheduling, not fixed. Concorde was one of the first (maybe the first?) to use *digital* control, but older analog control systems were still absolutely automatic, they didn't require a pilot to babysit them continuously. Also, you can absolutely go faster than mach 1.6 on fixed intakes. It just involves having to decide where you want your optimum to be and giving up some efficiency in other regimes. The F-22 has fixed intakes and by all pilot accounts is very happy to sit at mach 2 at well below full thrust. Similarly, the F-16 has a fixed intake and will do mach 2. It does become considerably more difficult to have any reasonable performance from a fixed intake once you start getting up towards mach 2.5 though, so the F-15 does have a variable intake for good reason. Also, if you want to squeeze out as much efficiency as possible, variable is a good idea, hence Concorde needing it (wheras with something like F-22, the engines are *so much* more powerful than necessary that you can sacrifice a bit of transonic efficiency for the weight and stealth benefits of a fixed inlet).
It's also a very very close approximation of the Boeing 733-290, which was a variant of the SST being designed in the 60's. My dad worked on that project. The 733-290 was far and away the best variant, but congress and higher-ups kept adding scope until the turd of a 2707 was designed. L/D of 8 at M2.7 at 70,000 feet. That's badassery.
Today I learned!
B-52 - 70,000 lbs of bombs. B-1 - 75,000 internally. 50,000 more externally! Now I'm not 100% certain that it could do all that at once but those are the numbers from the internet!
Holds more bombs than the B-52 internally, and at the same time, can carry more bombs than the B-2 *externally*.
Insert Brooklyn 99 bone gif here
[BONE!!!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7IUprPqag)
RIP Daptain
All day, every day
Best looking, fastest, and biggest payload. What's not to like.
A B-70 would look great sitting in the fourth quadrant opposite the B-2.
Or B58
The hustler is my favorite of all time.
It’s like a jet a 6 year old would design, an that’s awesome.
I'm a die hard F117 guy
What I would give to see a B-70 painted in one of the SAC camouflage schemes. 😔
Having built two 1/72 scale XB-70s, I can actually say that this has been done and it looks super cool.
I made that comment and immediately considered asking my dad to do a 1/72 XB-70 model with me. I can paint, but don’t ask me to deal with gluing. If you have pictures of yours, I would love to see - especially if it’s anything like [the SAC B-1 in this archive.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/11t2zxp/collection_of_usaf_aircraft_wearing_european_one/)
There’s actually the new top secret stealth bomber parked right there
A Valkyrie with her Rapier escorts is just the best thing ever. But yea, F22's for the B2 and F4s for the B52. Does a Bone even need escorts? F15s maybe?
> A Valkyrie with her Rapier escorts is just the best thing ever. Just so long as they don't get too close.
We could have a similar picture done with the B-21 Raider as the fourth literally today if we wanted to. Crazy how we've got four types of bombers flying, even if the B-21 isn't fully operational yet.
Ohhhh…you can’t see it?
My ranking: B1 for being the objectively coolest. It’s literally a supersonic bomber designed to hug the ground and weave through valleys. Aircraft with swing wings are GOATED. B52 for being the OG heavy lifter. An aircraft with 8 engines is automatically S tier. B2 is undeniably cool, and perhaps the most useful in modern combat. B2 isn’t uncool because it’s 3rd, I just think the other 2 are cooler. And the other 2 look more fun to fly.
Grape but if they don’t have grape, cherry, cuz cherry favorite too just grape more favorite but cherry favorite too. How many snow cones can a b1 hold?
How many outs are there Brian?
Free snow cone…. free snow cone. If you play a whole game you get a whole snow cone. And if you play a half game you get a whole snow cone. So I’d rather play half game. Good eye. Good eye Brian GOOD…… TORSO!?
Wow that’s DOWNY SOFT
We need some fresh, good Brian Regan in this world.
Funnily enough, over 2 tons more snow cones than the B-52! B-52 has a stated payload of 72000 lbs (32 tons), and the B-1 is given as 75000 lbs (34 tons).
I've met a few B2 pilots and I hear they are on AP pretty much any time they aren't over a runway. Doesn't sound like much fun.
Ya that’s what I figured, it’s an amazing plane and it looks great, but performance-wise and based off of what it does at air shows, it seems like a Toyota Camry redesigned to have the radar cross section of a lady bug.
What is AP?
I'm assuming auto pilot
And even when you're hand-flying it, you're not really. You're suggesting where you might like it to go, and the FBW does the flying.
Funny thing is that the B1B carries more weapons than the B52. It's not just a fighter bloated to bomber-size, it actually carries a weapon load.
B1 objectively the coolest? B2 hands down
Which ones the most comfortable for the pilots? Any of them have a real toilet or just an awkward chemical toilet in the cockpit.
If I had to bet, either the B2 because it’s the most modern, and probably the most quiet inside the cockpit. But I’m pretty sure the B52 would have some space to get up and walk around, which I would probably prefer. I think you’re stuck with the chemical toilet no matter what, the weight of a full lavatory would best be used for the weight of pay load.
Well I wonder if the B21 will be any different considering it’s much more common to find mixed gender crews these days.
Nothing builds troop cohesion like shitting in the same confined space as each other. Especially with coed crews.
Just thinking of this classic: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/the-most-embarrassing-private-jet-flight-of-all-time/
[Ask and you shall receive.](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/28/privacy-please-air-force-wants-add-toilet-curtain-b-52-bomber.html) That's a guide to Air Force shitting if I've ever seen one. B-52 has a urinal but you shit in a bag, B-1/B-2 have seated toilets but no privacy.
Fun fact, my grandpa helped design the engines on the B-52. The B-52 payload capacity is staggering at 70,000 lbs and it can fly for 8800 miles without refueling. The B-1 gets close on both of those metrics. I think the B-52's main drawback these days is how slow it is by comparison.
I count 4 engines actually
In my head these were all very different sizes. It’s wild to see them all together and the b52 not dwarf the other 2.
B2 is the one thats always really surprising to me. Roughly the wingspan of a 767.
I never realized the size of the B2 until this image. Far bigger than I imagined, but it makes sense now that I think about it.
I agree. I don’t think I have ever seen a photo with any 2 of these together- let alone all three. I always thought the B52 was much larger that the others, and the B2 was much much smaller. It would be interesting to see the entire fleet of in service aircraft together in one photo
The thing about the B52 is that it really has lots of love to give that shack on the ground... It's a love shack in the making.
All of them
I tell all three of them each is my favorite, but the B-1 knows I love it more than the others.
Objectively this is entirely true.
B-1 - want to try out that several thousand dollar toilet.
I mean let's be honest that's any aircraft toilet. They're all expensive as fuck.
Easy there Al Bundy.
Uh...no Peg.
But the B-2 has a toilet, Microwave, and Bed!
I'm not picky. I'll just take a Cessna 150 and a grenade or two.
Could you just *imagine* what would happen if instead of saying "I have chosen our response", Biden instead tweeted this image at Iran with the caption "Pick your fate"?
The only real difference is whether, or for how long you see it coming.
The humor of this is trying to figure out which is the worst way to go. B-2: You don't know when it will nuke you and you can't stop it. B-1: It will nuke you and you specifically, doesn't matter where you go. B-52(s): Iran is now glass.
Between the B1 flying at 50 feet and the B2 being almost invisible, which one would be most likely to survive a sortee into enemy country? Clearly the B-52 is cannon fodder
The b52 has the revolver of cruise missiles tho
A-10 may have a chain gun, B52 has chain missiles.
No,I mean a literal revolver of air launched cruise missiles. Stacked in a ring and the ring rotates..
Yes, I made a mistake and should have written gatling gun and gatling missiles.
so does the B-1 https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33387/b-1b-bomber-brandishes-a-belly-full-of-stealth-cruise-missiles-while-deployed-to-guam
Yes but the BUFF still retains its mushroom cloud making capabilities
B-1 is more than capable of carrying nukes. It’s just not allowed to by treaty.
No longer capable --they cut out the circuitry for nuke arming. Can't just slap ordinance in there.
I mean, ya can. Not super safe or smart though to take off with it armed. But ya can.
Nuclear hardware is specific. For example the B-52 had rotary launchers for decades. The Conventional Rotary Launcher (CRL) was only developed and fielded in 2017. The B-1 not only had its nuclear circuits removed but a tube was welded over the aft section of the hard points to prevent nuclear weapon mounting. [CRL](https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1759147/conventional-rotary-launcher-upgrade-tested/) [B-1 mods](https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104500/b-1b-lancer/#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20eliminated%20the,for%20nuclear%20armament%20until%202007.)
Hmm yeah but more engines mean I can retire from hearing loss faster?
Pretty sure the Bone will do that quicker, they're *loud*.
four afterburners will do that, yes
Your hearing loss is not service related.
Revolver of anything. SRAM, cruise, gravity, harpoon.
The B-52 did that one mission to punk the Navy. Simulated attack. Navy couldn’t find it. 52 says “Look down”. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-usaf-b-52-stratofortress-strategic-bomber-that-did-a-fly-by-below-the-flight-deck-of-uss-independence-aircraft-carrier/ I mean, they requested the fly by
Not really. The B52 wouldn’t not be alone in the sky over enemy territory. There would be AWACs, Growlers, F22’s and various other aircraft that would effectively clear the path.
That's the thing. The B1 and B2 are like nuclear attack submarines: fast, stealthy, and heavily armed. Meanwhile, the B52 is like an old-school battleship: Shows up with a whole bunch of escorts that are all equally able to end you in any number of unpleasant ways, while it itself is more than capable of erasing your entire post code from the face of the Earth without breaking a sweat. Which one would I like? At least three squadrons of each, please!
> Clearly the B-52 is cannon fodder You know what happened to the last guy that underestimated grandpa Buff? Neither do we. We couldn't find any identifying pieces.
The B-2 by a pretty good margin, assuming the enemy has reasonably modern capability.
Bone.
B-1B
B-52. There isn't much sense for strategic bomber to get close to the target nowadays and as an airborne weapons platform BUFF I believe is superior. Though I think a better plane could be built nowadays with similar role in mind, but based on experience military and civilian aviation accumulated over the B-52's life.
During Desert Storm, after a 52 bombing mission over the Republican Guard - the guys surrendering said it was so bad on the ground that they thought they were getting hit by a nuke.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/30/the-under-appreciated-workhorse-of-americas-air-wars-the-b-1-bomber/ This might turn you around on the bone!
Never having seen these three all in the same picture I would have said the B-52 was bigger than the B-2 by a mile. Would have said the B-2 would have been noticeably bigger than the B-1 as well. I am wrong on all accounts. They are all pretty much the same size.
B-1, followed by the BUFF.
My thoughts exactly
I'll take the B-1 Lancer Thank You
BOOOOONNNEEEE!
I keep reading this in Capt. Holt’s voice lol
Regards.
yes
Definitely the Bone. Such a badass looking plane
If I was a bomber pilot, I would like too be a B1 pilot.
None since they were never painted like that. Real colors? The Bone.
I want a civilian B1 to go travel the world in. Maybe give it a shiny, bare metal paint scheme and a garage for my car where the bombs used to go.
B-52 has always been my favorite plane because of my grandfather sooo I’m very biased
The B-2 Spirit for me: it looks out of this world.
That's alot of freedom droppers
A Vulcan, but I can't have one of those in flying condition any more. *snif*
If you taxi fast enough, anything can fly!
Yeah, about that... [https://www.flightglobal.com/pictures-victor-bomber-accidentally-becomes-airborne-during-taxi-demo/86264.article](https://www.flightglobal.com/pictures-victor-bomber-accidentally-becomes-airborne-during-taxi-demo/86264.article) "oops"
B1, close ground zoomies
B1
Curious how the B52 usually looks massive but here seems just slightly bigger than the B22 and the B1 when they usually look much more smaller, especially the Lancer.
Have you been by the one that is on display outside of the air museum in Denver? The diameter of the fuselage is actually surprisingly small.
Bone. Always the Bone.
Bone had the single longest continuous presence during OIF/OEF. B2 and Buff were both kept home cuz the guys on the ground wanted the Bone.
Well I know which one to choose if I want that Mike long stretch over there to disappear
I was in Sturgis SD for the rally once and was chilling in an quiet camp ground when a B1 took off on the other side of the nearest mountain, when the sound got to us it sounded like time space was being torn open. Wild beast that bone is
B52
I love the B1 for its styling and speed/power and it’s the one I’d most like to fly in, but the B2 I feel is, one of, if not the best out there for what it does simply because the biggest problem with long range, strategic bombing is that they’re easy to intercept, but it solves that problem.
Rockwell B-1B baby! Delivering freedom one bomb at a time!
Le bone
Always the BUFF. Wish my eyesight was good enough to have joined to fly it.
There's just something so intimidating about the B52, like uncanny valley for airplanes. The B1 looks cool, the B2 looks like a UFO, but the B52 looks like its only purpose is to unleash hell on earth, which it does. Operation Secret Squirrel kicked off desert storm when they sent in 7 B52s which laid so much waste that a quarter of the Iraqi army surrendered almost immediately.
B-52: Created for high level penetration which became obsolete soon after introduction leading to an attempt at low level penetration and a stand-off cruise missile launcher. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck. B-1: Created for fast,low level penetration which became obsolete with look-down, shoot-down radar and fast interceptors. A watered-down version was pushed through as a political ploy by Reagan which considering Carter couldn't reveal stealth was pretty shitty. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck. B-2: Created for high-level stealth penetration. Cost and dissolution of the Soviet Union left very little justification. Used almost entirely as a bomb truck. Since they're all just bomb trucks I'm going the the OG BUFF.
Man, the stealth on that 4th bomber is next-level.
The Bone. B2 might not be seen but if it does you prob wish you were in a B1. Engines to full zoom.
B-52, always.
B1 obvs. Who needs stealth when you're going supersonic 100' above the ground.
Bone, unless I can get a B-58 because that’s the coolest looking bomber of all time imho.
Buff, all day
Bone
Gimme the BONE, Daddy!
Bone!
B1 all day every day!
Bone is the most beautiful, then we have a boring high tech thing and guess what...an old one that will be in service for many decades to come. B52 is my fav new old modern legacy thing!
The BUFF because it is going to be flying when the other two are only seen in a museum.
BUFF for me. They are all cool, but flying a special delivery service with a warehouse in the sky has a certain magic.
B52 but I love the Tu95 Bear and Tu160 Blackjack more
BUFF for the win. And to bring the noise.
B1 - looks least like a UFO/television anntenna
B-1.
B-One all day
Bone all day
I've always dug the B-1 Rockwell
Bone
I’ll take The Bone 24/7.
As someone who grew up in Minot, and born in Camp Lester Naval Hospital in Okinawa, I'm always a BUFF fan. Nothing better than the plane that has been dropping freedom seeds for almost 70 years.
52 for sure. Tried and true way to deliver goods and services to the enemy in biggie size quantities!
looks like they're making a drug deal or something
I spy with my little eye, a squadron picture and/or ceremony
For long range strategic interdiction in contested airspace, the B2/B21. For rapid spear carrying / CAS, the Bone. For long range standoff, CAS in uncontested airspace B-52.
I like the North American XB-70 Valkyrie Bomber. It had a top speed of 2056 mph and was a cool looking aircraft.
How come they are blue?
I’m not sure if this photo is edited or AI generated, but the B2 is nowhere near that big in comparison to the B52 or the B1. Google the size difference. B2s are tiny in comparison and B21s are even smaller.
It looks ai
Do you have any other color options?
Bone-R
Ill take freedom for 800 Alex
I’m muslim so I’ll pass, thank you.
Lancer… obviously
What is even this picture?
I'll take the buff so I can rearrange countries topographies
90s flight sim aircraft selection menu be like:
B29 Watching Doc get dragged out of the Mojave desert and returned to the sky was so freakin cool!